February 2016 Summaries

Project Tango was showcased at the Mobile World Congress to demonstrate its potential in enhancing museum experiences, specifically at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. By equipping attendees with Project Tango developer kits featuring the museum tour app GuidiGO and the location-sharing app Glympse, users could navigate the museum without the need for Wi-Fi, GPS, or beacons. This technology allowed attendees to easily locate artworks, access detailed information by interacting with virtual tags, and share their indoor location with friends. The demonstration highlighted the transformative potential of augmented reality in making museum visits more interactive and informative, with the anticipation of Lenovo's consumer-ready Project Tango smartphone to be launched in the summer.

In a conversation with Steven Soneff, Product Manager for the Google Identity Platform, the focus is on Smart Lock for Passwords, a technology designed to simplify the process of signing into apps and websites across different devices. Smart Lock allows users to save passwords to their Google account and access them securely through Chrome and Android apps, enhancing the convenience and security of online interactions. Steven illustrates the functionality with a practical example involving Netflix, where he seamlessly switches from signing in on a desktop browser to using a smartphone. The discussion also highlights a blog post by Steven that provides insights into Smart Lock's operation and offers guidance for developers on integrating this feature into Android applications. For further exploration of the Google Identity Platform, developers are encouraged to visit the official developer site.

Google's Launchpad Accelerator, a program designed to help late-stage mobile app startups scale in their local economies, recently hosted 24 startups from India, Indonesia, and Brazil at its Mountain View headquarters for an intensive two-week mentorship session. Participants received guidance from Google engineers and industry experts, focusing on app scaling, monetization, and overall business success. Post-event, startups benefit from up to $50,000 in equity-free funding, six months of mentorship, and access to developer tools. Noteworthy successes include Brazilian game developer UpBeat Games, which saw a significant increase in app installations and active users, and Indonesian company eFishery, which gained insights into product scalability and user engagement. The program will expand in June 2016 to include startups from Mexico, along with the original participating countries, with plans to further broaden its reach.

In an engaging conversation over coffee, Googler David East discussed the significant advancements and resources that Google has invested in Firebase to simplify mobile backend development, describing it as 'The Holy Grail of Development.' The platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools, including real-time database features, user authentication, and static hosting, making it highly beneficial for developers, including those working with Unity3d. East also provided insights on how to utilize Firebase effectively for app development, emphasizing its ease of use and the robust support available at Firebase.com.

Poki, a cross-platform game publisher, has effectively employed strategic approaches for app monetization and development, as shared by co-founder Sebastiaan Moeys. Initially focusing on web-based games, Poki expanded into mobile with their app Zoi, which garnered over 500,000 downloads and a 4.4 rating. To ensure successful launches, they utilize a sophisticated in-app analytics system to measure metrics like 'Pure Game Time' and retention rates, advocating a gradual build-up of analytics capabilities. Poki's approach involves soft-launching games on the web to test and iterate before developing for mobile, allowing them to refine gameplay, ad placement, and localization strategies. This method, which has proven successful with Zoi, is recommended for other developers to mitigate risks and optimize resources. Additionally, Sebastiaan highlights the importance of exploring international markets, leveraging tools like AdMob for monetization, and collaborating with local partners to maximize reach and effectiveness in various regions.

Autotrack for analytics.js is an innovative solution developed by Google to address the evolving complexities of web analytics, offering a more dynamic approach to tracking user interactions on modern websites and applications. Unlike traditional static tracking snippets, Autotrack comprises a collection of plugins that facilitate comprehensive tracking with minimal manual configuration, especially for sites that rely solely on default Google Analytics implementations. Key features include automatic tracking of outbound links, form submissions, and URL changes in single-page applications, as well as declarative event tracking and media query monitoring, enabling a more nuanced understanding of user behavior. While it is particularly beneficial for sites with basic analytics setups, those with custom implementations should ensure compatibility to avoid data discrepancies. Autotrack is open-source and provides extensive documentation and resources on GitHub for further exploration and integration.

EarlGrey is an open-source functional UI testing framework for iOS, announced by Google iOS Developers in 2016, and has been adopted by several Google apps like YouTube, Google Calendar, and Google Photos for their testing needs. The framework offers robust features such as powerful built-in synchronization, which allows tests to automatically wait for events like animations and network requests, making them simpler to write and maintain. It also includes visibility checking to ensure interactions occur only with visible elements, preventing errors such as trying to tap a hidden button. Designed with flexibility in mind, EarlGrey's components for element selection, interaction, assertion, and synchronization are extensible, allowing developers to adapt the framework to their specific requirements. Available under the Apache license, developers can incorporate EarlGrey into their projects using CocoaPods or by manually adding it to their Xcode project.

The People API, announced by Google in February 2016, provides developers with a streamlined way to access data about a user's contacts and social connections, replacing the older Contacts API that used the GData protocol. By consolidating data from multiple sources, the new API offers enhanced features, such as access to private addresses, phone numbers, emails, and birthdays, provided the user has granted the necessary permissions. Built on HTTP and JSON, the People API allows any standard HTTP client to send requests and parse responses, but requires authorization through the Google Developers Console to obtain the necessary credentials. With the People API, developers can retrieve a list of user connections in a unified format and access additional data about each contact using the resourceName property. This innovation aims to inspire the creation of advanced web and mobile applications by simplifying access to a rich set of user data.

Christoph Pferschy, the developer of Hydro Coach, a popular drink reminder and water intake tracker app, shares his insights into successful app monetization and expansion strategies. Hydro Coach has gained significant traction with over 5,500 daily downloads by focusing on building a high-quality user experience and expanding its reach to 22 markets. Pferschy emphasizes the importance of starting with a single, impactful app and perfecting it before expanding into additional projects, aligning with his company's broader goal of creating a comprehensive health and fitness app system. He underscores the necessity of understanding users' needs and carefully selecting a business model prior to app launch, with a commitment to continuously enhancing user experience and monetization strategies. Pferschy also highlights the value of involving users in app localization efforts, which has helped Hydro Coach achieve high-quality translations in multiple languages, demonstrating the benefits of user collaboration in app development.